I thought Kelsey and Bobby were only aged by a few years. I can't remember. I did think Tara looked far too matronly. I wasn't sure if that was for story purposes, since Tara was supposed to be so cold and repressed on her return, or if Karen Lynn Gorney just looked matronly.

Wasn't that the story where they implied Tara's husband had been lovers with Michael Delaney?

Kelsey's age would have had nothing to do with making Tara matronly. Remember her oldest son Charlie had already been aged up.

Now when they aged Sam up that would have made her more of an older character than she really was.

The reason that I have always been told that they made Tara to look so matronly was to separate in people's minds that Tara and Erica were supposed to be the same age.

Remember at this time they were deaging Erica with the Kendall storyline. Bringing Tara back who had been her high school rival messed that up. So they had to separate them in people's minds. Making Tara look older than Erica was a subliminal way of doing that without saying it.

I do not remember if there was any implication about Jim Jefferson and Michael Delaney. I would find that very interesting if they did since when I was writing my last fan fiction I was going that route with Jim Jefferson - not with Michael but he was going to be gay.